Fast start propels Madison boys basketball over Morenci

Saturday

Feb 2, 2013 at 9:00 AM

By John CastleDaily Telegram Sports Writer

Morenci High School boys basketball coach Jim Bauer assessed Friday night's 58-30 Tri-County Conference loss to Madison this way — "We ran into a motivated juggernaut tonight, and even though we came ready to play, they had a great start."

In what most followers of TCC basketball thought would be a closely-contested game, Madison's early successes was key in the final results.

The Trojans were mourning the loss of coach Jeff Webster's father-in-law and Justin Webster's grandfather, and the players responded like a family should.

"This team is a family, and we handle good and bad like a family, and tonight we all came together and played as one," commented coach Webster, whose squad improved to 8-1 in the TCC and 12-2 overall.

An early 2-2 deadlock was erased when Madison scored 11 unanswered points to take a 13-2 lead and an eventual 16-6 advantage after the opening quarter.

"We got beat in transition in the first quarter and let them have too many offensive rebounds," said Bauer. "We started battling harder on the boards and cutting down their transition chances after the first, but coming back from 10 down against a team as versatile as they are makes it that much harder."

Any thoughts Morenci (1-7, 2-10) had of making a run at the Trojans came to an end quickly in the second quarter as Madison opened the second on a 15-1 run to open a 33-11 lead with 6-foot-6 sophomore Prince Benson a one-man defensive wrecking crew against the smaller Bulldogs. Benson would finish his night with 11 points and six blocked shots.

The teams virtually took the same amount of shots, but Madison scored inside much more successfully and finished hitting 23-of-47 shots for 49 percent compared to Morenci's 12-for-49 showing (24.5 percent).

"We talked all week about how they would be coming in here with momentum after their win over Clinton," said Jeff Webster. "What we wanted to do was establish ourselves in the first four minutes and play our tough defense throughout the game.

"Offensively we're still working hard on having great possessions and limit our turnovers. My kids always play hard on defense, and they did that again tonight."

In addition to Benson's production, Justin Webster led the winners with 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists, and Zach Mellon added 10 points and six rebounds, Collin Slates seven rebounds.

Daiton Lemmon came off the bench to lead Morenci in scoring with eight points with Hayze Wolf and Torin Merillat grabbing five rebounds each.